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Comment by rquirk | Hacker News Reader

The IoM isn't part of the EU or the UK. As a Manxman living in Europe, I'm fortunate that my mother's side of the family is English or I'd have more trouble with work permits and whatnot. I haven't been able to exchange my Manx driving licence for a Spanish one, for example, since it isn't recognised.

As for taxes, people on Mann get screwed over on prices - everything from groceries to petrol is more expensive than the north of England since it has to be shipped in. The tax breaks for residents are less than for corporations too, without the corporate breaks I think there would be less work there in general. Might get rid of the southern English bankers that all moved there in the 2000s if they removed so many incentives so it wouldn't be a complete loss ;-)

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>As a Manxman living in Europe, I'm fortunate that my mother's side of the family is English or I'd have more trouble with work permits and whatnot.

Only for the EU. As a Manxman you have a nice one-way street of benefits working in the UK...

>Manx people, as British Citizens, may travel and work freely in the United Kingdom.

However myself as a British citizen cannot take a ferry from Liverpool to the IoM and start work. But the reverse is entirely possible for yourself.

I'm English and I've worked in the Isle of Man - and getting a work permit was just a formality. You are also ignoring the money the IoM hands over to the Treasury to support the defence of the British Isles. The "neutral" Republic of Ireland genuinely free-rides on UK defence (and historically actively worked to undermine Northern Ireland security) and so would be a far better target for your complaints.

GP post's complaints don't apply in Ireland: A British citizen from Liverpool can arrive on the boat in Dublin and start working that afternoon with no permits. Looks like you're throwing in a red herring.

> everything from groceries to petrol is more expensive than the north of England since it has to be shipped in

I can assure you that the North is one of the cheapest places to live in the UK. I could rent a huge, 4 bedroom house in some places for less than I'm renting a single room in London. Out of interest how much is petrol/groceries? What popular UK brands do you have over there that could be compared?

> is more expensive than the north of England

[emphasis mine] The Isle of Man is off the north west coast of England, so he's comparing the prices there with the nearest mainland.

Oh right, I think it should be 'than England, to the north' in that case though? 'The north of England' is a commonly used phrase to group counties like Yorkshire, Cumbria etc so even with the emphasis I still parse it wrong.

So what is the IoM status? Is it a separate country?

Wikipedia says its a Crown dependency - how is that different than being part of the UK?

I would love to hear more -- because how can IoM avoid Jersey's fate?

> So what is the IoM status? Is it a separate country?

No. The IoM isn't a sovereign state, although it has it's own legislative branch.

>Wikipedia says its a Crown dependency - how is that different than being part of the UK?

They don't have representation in the UK, other than the Lieutenant Governor. They have their own passports, currency and taxes. The UK can pass laws that affect the Crown Deps but they generally don't do so without consent.

>I would love to hear more -- because how can IoM avoid Jersey's fate?

IoM has diversified it's sketchy revenue creating beyond tax evasion and avoidance of UK banks by also issuing becoming a haven for the UK/Ireland gambling industry.

It's similar to somewhere like American Samoa wrt to the USA.

Crown dependancies are self governing, though the UK has ultimate responsibility and control. The UK usually leads in defence and diplomacy. The extent of UK involvement and precise details vary from dependency to dependency.

This video (5m long) might explain a few things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

Thanks. OMG. What a mess.

It looks like a system of whatever works and not upsetting an apple cart.

> So what is the IoM status? Is it a separate country?

This mostly explains things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

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